wever she is to possess
merely a qualified jurisdiction, and having so done, they conceive that
without let or hindrance they have a right to range at will over the
spacious remainder. Religion can claim only a stated proportion of their
thoughts, and time, and fortune, and influence; and of these, or perhaps
of any of them, if they make her any thing of a liberal allowance, she
may well be satisfied: the rest is now their own to do what they will
with; they have paid their tythes, say rather their composition, the
demands of the Church are satisfied, and they may surely be permitted to
enjoy what she has left without molestation or interference.

It is scarcely possible to state too strongly the mischief which results
from this fundamental error. At the same time its consequences are so
natural and obvious, that one would think it scarcely possible not to
foresee that they must infallibly follow. The greatest part of human
actions is considered as indifferent. If men are not chargeable with
actual vices, and are decent in the discharge of their religious duties;
if they do not stray into the forbidden ground, if they respect the
rights of the conceded allotment, what more can be expected from them?
Instead of keeping at a distance from _all sin_, in which alone consists
our safety, they will be apt not to care how near they approach what
they conceive to be the boundary line; if they have not actually passed
it, there is no harm done, it is no trespass. Thus the free and active
spirit of Religion is "cribbed and hemmed in;" she is checked in her
disposition to expand her territory, and enlarge the circle of her
influence. She must keep to her prescribed confines, and every attempt
to extend them will be resisted as an encroachment.

But this is not all. Since whatever can be gained from her allotment, or
whatever can be taken in from the forbidden ground, will be so much of
addition to that land of liberty, where men may roam at large, free from
restraint or molestation, they will of course be constantly, and almost
insensibly, straitening and pressing upon the limits of the religious
allotment on the one hand; and on the other, will be removing back a
little farther and farther the fence which abridges them on the side of
the forbidden ground. If Religion attempt for a time to defend her
frontier, she by degrees gives way. The space she occupies diminishes
till it be scarcely discernible; whilst, her spirit extinguish